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october 2018 books

I’ll admit, this was kind of a weird reading month for me. I read one book within the span of a few days at the very beginning of the month, then got a wicked sinus infection that prohibited extended periods of reading for a few weeks, then read another book this weekend. Anyway, here are a few details about each:

I was looking for a book to entertain me during my 3-hour glucose tolerance test and had wanted to check out Turtles All the Way Down(also by John Green), but the library closed before I could get there on the night prior to the test. So I settled on taking this book from my parents’ house instead. I thought I had read this book in high school, but only the first chapter or so seemed familiar, so perhaps I abandoned it back then. Anyway, this book has particular relevance to me because it is based on a private high school in Alabama from which my older sister graduated. I found the characters appealing, although I had trouble believing that this particular motley crew would become friends in reality (private schools full of weirdos are still quite cliquey, for the record). This book made me laugh out loud a couple times due to the abundance of clever snark coming out the mouths of the teens in the book, and I was quite immersed in their world for the entirety of my glucose test. It was a quick and engaging read, but I’m not sure it will be one I remember for years to come.

The subtitle to this book is “A Librarian’s Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life.” I tend to have strong feelings for the books I read (hence, my habit of writing these reviews), and I also happen to think librarians are the best kind of people (although I should mention that my aunt is a brilliant librarian, so I might be biased!). So, I was eager to crack this book open. As you might expect, there isn’t a plot to this book, just a series of letters addressed to various books in the library’s and the author’s personal collections. The first few entries didn’t exactly hook me, as they were about books I hadn’t read, so I felt like I might be missing out on some inside jokes. But, later entries seemed to incorporate more of the author’s personality and served as excellent summaries of books I might be interested in reading myself. In fact, if you read this book, I recommend you keep your phone or a pen handy so you can make a reading list based on all the books mentioned. Even if you don’t particularly like the author’s quirky storytelling, this book is a wonderful resource if you’re looking for something new to read.